But we can really help you here. First lets talk about what this is and why it exists.

Think of your small business tax number as the social security ID of your business. It’s how the government ID’s your new business.

The correct terminology is EIN Employer Identification Number. It is also known as a Federal Tax Identification Number, and is used to identify a business entity. Generally, businesses need an EIN.

Do remember that if you’re a sole proprietor you can continue to use your SSN and file personal tax returns. Today, I’m not going to get into the tax benefits and challenges of your business legal organization structure.

Do I need a Small Business tax number?

In the following cases you’ll need to apply for an EIN, (I’ll show you how to do that in a moment)

1. If you have employees
2. If your business is going to be a corporation or a partnership
3. If you withhold taxes on income
4. If you plan to file a tax return
5. If you are involved with any of the following types of organization - Trusts, IRAs, Exempt Organization Business Income Tax Returns. Estates. Real estate mortgage investment conduits. Non-profit organizations. Farmers’ coops. Plan administrators

How do I get an EIN?

Here’s the good news. It’s really easy and will take you minutes. The IRS has a great site that enables you to do this on line, phone fax or mail. the process takes minutes and is free. You can use it immediately for:

• Opening a bank account
• Applying for business licenses
• Filing a tax return by mail.

However, it will take up to two weeks before your EIN becomes part of the IRS’s permanent records. You must wait until this occurs before you can:

• File an electronic return
• Make an electronic payment
• Pass an IRS Taxpayer Identification Number matching program.

The IRS site is here

It’s good to be able to compliment the IRS occasionally, as let’s face it, they are hardly everyones favorites. But they’ve got a great application process for your small business tax number.

One of the reasons we started WDTD was the nightmare I had starting my first business ten years ago. There was little help available and I made many administrative mistakes, wasted countless hours and dollars and got very frustrated. I hope this helps you!

So here are some tips. We’re going to cover what it takes to be successful working at home? We’ll also show you the steps you should take to get started.

So what do you need to work at home?

1. Self starter – You’ll need to be a self starter as there’s nobody to chase you. One of the biggest risks faced by the person working at home is putting stuff off.
2. Stay focused – One of the dangers we see is people drifting along getting nothing done. the Internet is at your fingertips, the TV may be in the same room, there are 1001 distractions… The opposite here is that it’s very easy when you work at home, to never stop. You need to put time fences round your work and not burn out.
3. Task oriented – Start each week and each day with a list of things you’re going to accomplish. You’ll feel great when they are done. Angelique and I use an online service called Toodledo. We have iPhones and it even syncs with them.
4. Take breaks – I don’t mean browse the web. Get out of the house and do something. I jump on my mountain bike most days and go off into the hills for an hour. Angelique climbs. I also go running. Taking an exercise break in the daylight makes a huge difference to how you feel and how effective you are.
5. The rule – it’s not how long you work that counts, it’s what you get done!

Five steps to starting

1. Mark out your territory. If you can, have a separate space where you work. A place where the kids, family or whoever, won’t be messing about and messing up your thinking, papers or files. It’s important that even with home work jobs you feel like you’re at work.
2. Get your technology sorted.  Angelique and I use Macs because they seem to always work and AppleCare solves all our issues really quickly. I have a wireless network and everything is on all the time. PC’s are cheaper, but my experience is that you pay for that in the long term with down time. Either way, you don’t want to be down. It’s wasting time, money and you look like an amateur to your customers.
3. Agree the rules – if you have kids and a family you need a contract with them. No interruptions. You cannot be fixing the PlayStation, making snacks, running errands, etc. it just does not work and it leads to frustrations on both sides. My experience with others shows that this is one of the biggest downfalls.
4. Zoning – Most people live in residential spaces that are zoned. This is the city ensuring the development and use of space does not go crazy. For most home based jobs you should be OK. But check it out, you’re better off finding out now. Type planning and your city name into Google and you’re there! Simple.
5. Tax – There are real tax benefits to working at home. At this stage my advice is for you to collect all your receipts. We’ll cover this is more detail later.

We love home work jobs and we’ve made a success out of doing it. You can too!